Jun 12, 2011

Memories to Treasure: Honeyhill Elementary School Grads Gather

The Hour Story about the Reunion

Last month there was a most unusual picnic held at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, CT.  It was a 50 year reunion of Honeyhill Elementary School graduates and teachers.  That's right FIFTY year reunion of ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. My husband Vinny was on the committee. 

Former students - some of whom are now retirees themselves gathered with some of the retired teachers from Honeyhill Elementary School.  The former teachers brought everything from homemade salads to baked ziti, meatballs and an impressive variety of delicious picnic foods.  The former students provided hotdogs, hamburgers, condiments, cake and water.  The event was a huge success.  Eighty six people attended.  The DJ played music from the fifties and sixties, there was dancing, laughing and catching up with old and new friends.  What a delightful story to hear about.  Alas it wasn't front page news.

Except for The Hour, the news media forgot to show up.  The Hour had a misprint stating that it was a high school reunion. The Norwalk Mayor came, along with our State Representative Larry Cafero, School Superintendent Susan Marks, and State Senator Bob Duff. The gathering was sweet and endearing.

Ed Farris, Vinny's fifth grade teacher in the golden 1960's attended the picnic along with many other former teachers at Honeyhill. Ed who is79 years old and still substituting in the Norwalk schools, was working at Honeyhill the day they opened and was still there the day it closed.  The City of Norwalk closed the school due to falling student numbers. A Scholarship fund has been created as a result of the warm memories of an era long past.  The members of the reunion committee decided to honor Ed.

The Ed Farris Scholarship has been awarded to a local Norwalk High Scholl Graduate going into the field of teaching.

Sadly, the committee wasn't notified of the event and no one was there to present the student with the certificate.  We do not even know if the recipient knows what the scholarship means to those who contribute to the ongoing fund.  Former students, co-workers, current friends and family members have contributed.  As a result there will be scholarships available in the future.  A formal presentation is being arranged to right this oversight.

As an aside to this event I want to mention that Vinny and I bought a house on St. Mary's Lane in 1980 so our children could experience a similar grade school education that Vinny enjoyed.  By the time our girls were old enough for kindergarten, Honeyhill Elementary School was closed.  The site now houses The  Honeyhill Healthcare Center which I believe is owned by the Norwalk Hospital.  The city gave the property to the hospital despite an offer from the Norwalk YMCA to renovate and rent it from the city and to give it back to us if we decided not to renew a lease in the future.  I am not going to address the politics of that!

I attended the event and discovered that despite our daughters not being able to attend the school that we wanted them to; the girls did have several wonderful elementary school teachers from the Honeyhill Lunch Bunch - that is what a group of former Honeyhill teachers who still gather regularly call themselves. 

Mrs. Dayton taught Melissa and Stephanie in Kindergarten.  Mrs. Jones had them in the First Grade.  Mrs. Fodor taught Stephanie, and Rev. Jeanettte Olmstead-Sawyer taught the girls Science at West Rocks. 

The gift of Norwalk's Honeyhill Elementary School is still giving.  How special is that?